


The Most Wonderful Time

by edgarallenhoe



Series: The Life and Times of Iron Maiden [8]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Arguing, Avengers Family, Christmas, Domestic Avengers, F/M, Fluff, Hanukkah, Holidays, Kwanzaa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 02:41:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4162569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edgarallenhoe/pseuds/edgarallenhoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Quinn Rosen's favorite time of the year is when the snow starts to fall and all the big holidays roll around. She usually goes all out for the season, but what happens with her relationship with the rest of her team when she gets a little too over the top?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Most Wonderful Time

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's not even close to being time for the holidays, but thanks for reading anyways!

It was finally December, Quinn Rosen’s favorite time of the year. The past eleven months had gone by in a flash, but she wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. It was time to be thankful for everything she had, and she wasn’t wasting any time making sure everyone in the tower knew how much she appreciated them. Her favorite holiday was coming up, after all: Christmas. It was the best time of the year, truly; everyone had to be nice to each other, she could drink eggnog to her heart’s content, and everything just looked extremely beautiful after all the decorating was done.

Quinn had hung up tinsel, mistletoe, lights, and ribbons around the living quarters within the tower. She was surveying her work when she felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. She didn’t even flinch; she was used to Pietro sneaking up on her by now.

“What is all this?” Pietro was looking at all the decorations curiously.

“It’s for Christmas. I just wanted to do something nice for all of you guys. I figured we could have sorta like a family Christmas party or something.” Her eyes shone as she talked about it.

“Oh! Christmas, that’s... nice, Quinn. Thank you,” he said as he kissed the top of her head. He sounded a bit strange when he said that, but she didn’t really catch it as she leaned down to crack open her brand new fake Christmas tree. Pietro stared at it oddly.

“Could you give me a hand with this?” Quinn asked her boyfriend as she pulled pieces of the plastic tree out of the box. He seemed to snap out of his confusion at the sound of her voice.

“What? Sure! Sorry, there’s just something…” he trailed off. She still didn’t really seem to be paying attention as she was busy looking at the diagram of the tree on the box.

“Quinn, I need to tell you something,” he said, trying to snap her out of her tree-building reverie, “I’m actually… Jewish.”

Quinn almost dropped the piece of the tree she was trying to fit in. She hadn’t even considered that some of the team might not celebrate Christmas. Shit, she hoped she wasn’t going to offend anyone.

“I’m so sorry Pietro! I never even asked.” She had started to frantically dismantle the tree when Pietro laughed and put his hands on her’s. She looked up, her eyes apologetic.

“Do not worry, I am not offended dragostea mea*. It’s just something I never mentioned,” he murmured gently as he rubbed her hands with his thumbs. Quinn still looked worried, though, as she bit her lip.

“It’s gonna be a holiday party. I’ll go out and get a menorah and a Kinarah, and it’ll just be one big celebration. It’ll be even better than just a Christmas party,” she said suddenly, ideas flooding her brain. Pietro looked momentarily concerned that she was going overboard, but shrugged it off and grinned at his girlfriend.

“I will help you with whatever you need,” he vowed as they began to put up the tree once again.

Over the next few days, the residential hall was completely covered in Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa decorations. Quinn was bouncing around excitedly, singing Christmas and holiday carols and drinking her weight in eggnog. The rest of the team had found it a bit endearing at first, but was starting to get annoyed with her seemingly endless holiday cheer. Even Pietro could hardly stand it. He was trying to be supportive, but it was difficult to do so when she wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. He was hiding in their now-shared room while she was out in the living room putting the finishing touches on everything.

Quinn didn’t notice anything wrong with how she had been acting; she just wanted the rest of the team to experience the holidays the same way she did. She pulled out her phone and checked the time, which was when she noticed what day it was. It was December 6th, the first day of Hanukkah.

“Shit!” she exclaimed as she scrambled to retrieve the gifts she had gotten for Pietro and Wanda. She found the little silver boxes she had gotten the twins and crept into Wanda’s room first to leave the gift on her bed. Then, she looked around the hallway before sneaking into her own room and moving to put the gift on the nightstand. She wasn’t alone in the room, though.

“Pietro? I thought you were with Clint and Bruce in England.” They had said they were going to check out some mysterious activity in the London area and would be gone for the whole day. Quinn was extremely surprised that he was here.

“Huh? Oh, yes! We, um, we got back early. Turns out it was nothing,” he said groggily, having been awoken from a nap. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the clock. It was only noon. There was no way they could’ve gotten to London and back and investigated the disturbance in three hours.

“You didn’t go at all, did you? Why are you lying to me?” Quinn was extremely concerned now, and her brow was deeply furrowed atop her forehead. Pietro sighed and sat up.

“The truth is… you are a bit frightening right now. The constant festivities and pestering, it is just becoming a bit annoying. Everyone is saying so. You know that I love you and-” he had been looking at her apologetically but she cut him off.

“Save it. I was just trying to do something nice, but I guess I just won’t try anymore.” She was holding back frustrated tears as she dropped the small silver box to the ground and stormed out.

“Quinn!” Pietro tried to quickly follow the girl but he ran into the door as she slammed it behind her. He held his head in hands and groaned. It was then that he noticed the little box on the ground. He gingerly picked it up and opened the lid. Inside the box was a small silver bracelet with a thin engraved strip. The engraving said one simple word: “forever.” It was beautiful and delicate, and even though Pietro didn’t typically wear jewelery he would wear this for Quinn. He went out to search for her, but couldn’t find her in the large apartment. He tried the elevator and found it taking forever to come back. She must have left, but he didn’t know where. He raced down the staircase instead, wondering why he didn’t just do that in the first place. When he reached the garage below, he saw no trace of her.

“Shit.” He knew that he had messed up pretty badly this time. Things were going really well with them, too. They hadn’t had a fight in months. They were both pretty passionate people, but they had mostly just been in a sort of blissful honeymoon stage since the first time they had made love. He wandered back upstairs and just waited around for her to get home. Clint, Bruce, Wanda, Natasha, and Steve waltzed in sometime later, laughing about something or other that Clint had said.

“Hey kid,” Steve greeted the Sokovian, “Why the long face?”

“Quinn is gone. I may have let it slip that she was being overzealous about the holidays and she… stormed out,” Pietro said, eyes downcast.

“Dammit Pietro!” Natasha sighed angrily. 

“Do you think I wanted to tell her? It was an accident!” Pietro suddenly shouted. Wanda strode over to him, sensing and seeing how distressed her brother was and trying to comfort him with an arm around his shoulders. “She will never forgive me for this.”

“Well, she’s probably mad at all of us. But she’ll forgive us eventually.” Natasha sighed again and shook her head.

“Well, I’m going to head home. You all should get a good night’s rest, we’ve got work to do in the morning,” Steve said.

“What kind of work? It’s like every villain in the world is taking the holidays off,” Clint scoffed.

“We’re gonna plan a party,” the captain said matter-of-factly. Everybody dispersed after that. Pietro thought that a party for Quinn was a wonderful idea, and his spirits brightened considerably as he wandered to his and Quinn’s bedroom. Looks like he would be sleeping alone tonight.

When he awoke, the first thing he saw was a shoe box. He sat up and looked around, very confused as to why this was on his bed. There was no note, and he was a bit hesitant about opening it, but when he did was shouted excitedly. They were the shoes he had been eyeing for months in the display window of a store a few blocks away. He had never wanted to go in, though, figuring the man behind the counter wouldn’t take him seriously with his thick accent (it had always been a bit embarrassing for him when people either couldn’t understand him or he didn’t know what to say). These must have been from Quinn, but why was she still leaving gifts when she was mad at him?

He went out to search for her that day, stopping at her favorite cafes and stores and finally ending up at her childhood home. He had never actually been inside or met her parents, but she had pointed out the building to him before. She must be here, he thought. He slowly (for him) wandered up the steps to the apartment that she had said belonged to her parents. He knocked on the door, heart beating a bit quicker than usual. He was truthfully very nervous about meeting her parents. When the door clicked open, he could see their resemblance to Quinn right away.

“Hi,” he said nervously, mentally kicking himself for not saying anything more.

“Hello sweetheart, what do you need today?” Quinn’s mother asked kindly.

“I was wondering, uh, if Quinn is around?” He looked at his hands and found them shaking a bit and quickly stuffed them in his pockets.

“Oh. Oh! You’re Pietro Maximoff, aren’t you?” He noticed that her tone had darkened a bit as she said his name. Quinn’s father hadn’t said anything yet, but was currently glaring at the young man on their doorstep.

“Yes, I just… I messed up, and I wanted to apologize. I understand if she does not want to speak yet, though. I will go, but will you let her know that I am sorry for what I said?” he pleaded with the short woman standing before him.

“Fine,” she huffed, “Just go before you cause anymore trouble.” Pietro was nodding as the door was slammed in his face. Great, her parents would probably hate him forever now. He supposed that all he could do now was wait for her to come back. He wandered around the streets for a bit, looking in shop windows and at ads on the sides of buildings. It had just started to snow when he something caught his eye. He paused for only a moment to look at it before deciding it was perfect for Quinn and rushing in to buy it.

He made his way back to the tower and sulked around, feeling lost without his girlfriend. Wanda tried to comfort him, but all he wanted to was sit around and mope. He woke up the next morning and found his gift on the counter in the kitchen. This was more from the heart than the other two, not that they hadn’t been meaningful. This was for both him and Wanda, and it was a photo album containing every picture Quinn had taken of them or around them and a few others of the rest of the team. His favorite photo was one that Natasha had actually taken of him kissing the top of Quinn’s head and her blushing. He loved it when her cheeks turned red.

The pattern continued for the next few days, with Pietro finding gifts in random places in the morning. He tried to wait up for whenever Quinn would come drop them off but never seemed to be able to catch her. He was almost tempted to return to her parents’ house but figured that was a bit too forward. The gifts she left were all wonderful, though. On the fourth day, he found a DVD of his favorite American film, “West Side Story,” sitting on the couch (Quinn never really understood why he liked it so much, but gave in and had watched it with him multiple times anyways). The fifth day was his favorite picture from the photo album encased in a simple silver frame. He set it on his nightstand and hoped she returned soon. The sixth day, he was in agony waiting for her, but he found her gift in the fridge. It was a case of his favorite beer, and he chuckled when he saw the little bow attached to it. He figured she must be toying with him now, waiting for the eighth day to return. The seventh day was the worst.

He woke up and checked her side of the bed, as he did every morning. He sighed when he found nothing there. This game they were currently playing was really stressing him out, and he didn’t know how was going to handle another twenty-four hours of it. Then, he found the gift. It was sitting on the kitchen counter again, as the album had been, but it was so small that he almost didn’t notice it. It was a small silver bullet. He looked at it, confused, until he saw the tiny engraving on the side. It was a date. April 30th, 2015. The day that Ultron had attacked. She must have saved one of the bullets that had been about to tear through his body. She probably just saw it as their first real meeting, but he saw it as a reminder of his immense debt to the woman he loved. She had saved him in so many ways and he repaid her by calling her “annoying.” He had never felt more like an idiot.

The eighth day finally rolled around. He shot out of bed when his alarm clock alerted him that it was seven o'clock. He was tired of waking up alone. To his surprise, though, he couldn’t find her in any of the rooms of the apartment. He didn’t even see any gifts laying about. Then, he saw a note on the counter where the photo albums had been. He picked it up with shaking hands, unfolding it to reveal Quinn’s handwriting. The note simply read: “Check your old bedroom.” He shot off down the hall and threw open the door to his old room. Inside, Quinn was sitting on the bed. She beamed when he walked in, and she got up to meet him.

“Hi,” she said a bit sheepishly.

“Hello,” he replied, swallowing a lump in his throat. “Quinn, I am so sorry for what I said. I was simply a jerk, there is not a better word for it. You are the best thing that has happened to me since… well, since forever. I love you. Please don’t ever leave me like that again.”

“Actually, I wanted to apologize, too. I was going pretty crazy with all the decorating, wasn’t I?” She grinned, looking a bit embarrassed. “I thought you’d be mad, so I didn’t come back, which was really stupid, by the way. I wanted to come back on the first night, but I just couldn’t face you.”

“I think we are both at fault here a bit, me perhaps more than you.” Pietro looked down at his feet. He felt Quinn throw her arms around his neck and bury her face in his chest. He was a bit startled but quickly reciprocated.

“Let’s never fight again, okay?” she mumbled into his neck. He kissed her forehead and she felt him make an approving noise.

“I got you something, Quinn,” Pietro said, pulling away, “Wait right here.”

He sped out and returned quickly with a small egg-shaped silver box. It looked like a jewelery box, and Quinn couldn’t hold in her excitement as she opened it up. Inside was a beautiful silver pendant with the word “mereu*” engraved on it.

“It means ‘forever,’” Pietro murmured as tears threatened to spill from Quinn’s eyes. She looked up at her boyfriend with love in her eyes. She set the necklace and the box down on an unused dresser and pulled Pietro in for a kiss. It became less sweet and more fervent, their breathing becoming ragged as they got more heated.

“I got you a present, too. Your eighth gift,” Quinn panted, pulling away momentarily.

“Mmm, what is it?” Pietro mumbled against her lips.

“I’ll let you do that thing you like,” she had pulled away fully now, and was wiggling her eyebrows at the silver-haired man. He looked at her hungrily.

“I will get the peanut butter.” She laughed as he sped away. 

Sometime later, she was seated around the living room with the entire team (for once). They had arranged a big gift-giving celebration for Quinn and everyone was participating. Tony, Vision, Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Wanda, Sam, Steve, Rhodey, and even Thor were all sitting around laughing and talking. Quinn’s heart burned with affection for these people, and she was so thankful that they were so considerate of her feelings. She had been embarrassed after storming away from Pietro, and was afraid that the rest of the team would just think of her as a stupid kid. They surprised her, though, and she was glad for it. They were currently sitting around opening stacks upon stacks of presents that they had all gotten for each other.

“Why does it smell like peanut butter?” Wanda looked curiously at Quinn, who was seated next to her on the floor. 

“I think it’s best not to ask questions,” Quinn said with a bit of a grin, glancing at the white-haired man on the other side of her. She heard Wanda make a disgusted sound and reached for one of the gifts in front of her. She shrieked a bit when she opened it.

“Who got me a gun?” Natasha raised her hand at the shocked question.

“Thought you could use it. You could protect yourself better. There’s one for all three of you,” she said to the three youngest Avengers. Pietro looked at Quinn and Wanda excitedly, while the two girls just grimaced at each other. A short while later, Quinn stood up and addressed the group.

“I know I’m not the easiest person to get along with during this time of year. I went a little crazy, and I’m sorry for that. I just want you all to know, though, that you’re absolutely wonderful people and I don’t know how I’d function without you. I was going crazy at home. But anyways, thanks,” she finished a bit lamely, her cheeks turning pink.

“Hear, hear!” Thor shouted and raised his glass of hard cider. The rest of the team raised their own glass or shouted in agreement, and Quinn sat back down. Pietro immediately pulled her into his lap and pressed a feather-light kiss to her neck.

“So, what is the strange plant hanging from the doorways? You never explained that to me,” Pietro said from behind her.

“It’s mistletoe. When two people are under it together, they have to kiss, it’s a holiday tradition.” She had just finished saying that when she felt herself being lifted into the upright position. In less than half a second, she was standing in the doorway facing Pietro. He had a huge grin on his face as he looked down at his girlfriend.

“You know, I would’ve kissed you anyways.”

“Yes, but this is more fun.”

“I love you so much,” Quinn mumbled before leaning in. 

“I love you, too.” 

*dragostea mea - my love  
*mereu - forever


End file.
